Moments like this
by Naoki Ichigo
Summary: Relationship moments between Hakuryuu and his wife, who he had married because of political reasons.
1. Garden

He liked his free time. No work. No training. Nothing. Just nothing.  
He liked sitting in the small garden behind the main house. After he became emperor, after getting away from Sinbad and his followers, after building up the broken empire, after all the shit he had gone through he was finally able to relax.  
It was just for a few minutes, but every second of those minutes were worth it.

He was still young so he had to learn so much more.  
The generals that already served his father were no longer.  
The soldiers were unsure about him.

The civilians were demanding more freedom.

Right now the more or less new founded Kou Empire was not strong or stable.  
Well it wasn't weak or instable either, but it could became so very easily.

A slight breath of air touched his skin.

He took a sip of his tea.

Strawberry tea.

Her favorite.

Her?

She was his fiancée.

She was with him right now.  
Sitting next to him without saying anything.  
They almost never talks with each other.

There was nothing to talk about.

The married between them, was just to make sure, that he wouldn't do something stupid.  
He knew from the very beginning, that he would be under observation, when he joins hands with Sinbad and her.  
It could be worse. Her country didn't want much from him.  
Marry the princess, accept a few rules – rules that he already more or less totally agreed on – and don't go to war just for expending the empire.

The princess was a good looking, intelligent young woman. She knew how the world works and she was able to voice herself, but most of the time she didn't interfere with him and the issues of the empire.  
He liked that about her.

He put his teacup down on the table and she put her head on his shoulder.  
Seems like she was tired.

Slowly he starts to run his fingers through her hair.  
It was soft.

He liked those moments in the small garden behind the main house.  
Even when it was just for a few minutes, every second of those minutes was worth it, because he could share some moments of total understanding and acceptance with a person he barely knew.


	2. Broken

Silence.  
He liked the silence.

He liked it until he realizes that it means that he is alone.

There was a silence when he was with her too, but it was different.

It was a warm silence, but this silence right now was cold.

It was only normal that she was not around.

Why should she?

He was working.  
Doing emperor stuff.

She didn't want to disturb him.

Or she was just sleeping.

Maybe he should look after her.  
She didn't seemed very pleased the last few weeks.

Yes, weeks.

He ignored it.  
Thought that she just had a bad day like everyone has from time to time.  
Later he was always working and therefore always postponed a talk with her.

With a look outside he decided that it was time to go to bed anyway.  
She would be there.  
Hopefully.  
Sometimes she was not sleeping in their bed. She would sleep in her bed and with "her" he did not mean his wife. "Her" was his wife's best female friend, that she – his wife – called her wife.  
So, his wife was officially married with him. He was her husband, but unofficially she also had a wife. It was just a joke, a play, but she loves it way too much.

Well, for him it was alright. The same could be said about "her" husband. Yes, the wife of his wife was also married. "Her" husband was a very kind man.

Slowly he laid down his pen and stood up.  
Tired, he was so tired and he only realized it now.  
Maybe he should look more after himself.

More asleep than awake he walked through the palace towards his bedroom, where his wife was waiting for him, hopefully.

And she did.  
Well, that wasn't really correct. She was sleeping and therefore did not even notice that he was here now.  
Silently he took off his cloths and changed into his bed robes.  
Without waking her up, he tried to enter their bed, but he totally failed at doing so.  
But at least he had tried.  
After he lied down next to her, she slowly came closer until she was able to hug him.  
She was cold, her skin was pale and she looked so unbelievable tired and sad.  
His heart started to hurt just by looking at her.  
It was his fault that she was in this shape. He should have taken better care of her! It was his fault!

Tenderly he put his arms around her. Embraced her.

Soft kisses found their way to her forehead.

With a hushed voice he told her how much he would love her. He hoped she would believe him – he could understand if she did not.

In all honesty, he liked moments like this, because they gave him the feeling that they – he and his wife – were getting closer to each other, that she loves him as much as he loves her. The cold inside of him would leave for a short time and let him feel the warmth of her body and her love. Moments like his felt so unreal the next day that he sometimes was wondering if they had really happened.  
He liked moments like this, because it was their moment. Only theirs.

On the other hand, he did not like them at all, because moments like this meant that she was not alright!  
She was sad!  
She was broken!  
And he did not care until it was too late!  
Until she looked like this!  
He was a horrible husband!

Moments like this made him realize that he had to learn so much more about life, about being alive, about being a husband, a human, about being responsible for someone.

Moments like this made him realize how broken people can be.


	3. Reminder

I am sorry for all my mistakes.  
The english grammatic, especially the different tenses, are very hard for me.  
But I still hope you can enjoy the chapter.

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Sometimes she stayed with him, while he was working. In the beginning it was very distracting, because most of the time she would sit in the armchair across the room and watch him. Well, it looked like she would. When he spoke to her, she always seem to "wake up".

Still, it was not really comfortable – it was even more uncomfortable.

Sometimes when she stayed with him, she read the scrolls that were laying around. In the beginning he had watched her doing so and it was very interesting from time to time. The way she sit, the way her expression changed, the way she held the scroll, the way she looked in the far distance, when she thought about something.

Now everything was more or less normal. She would do her thing, he would do his.  
Today was one of those days in which she was watching him doing his work. He wasn't bothered by it anymore. He wasn't until she was standing in front of his desk and seemed like she wanted to talk or at least was interested in what he was doing.  
By now he knew that mostly it was the first option. Political stuff did not interested her that much. It was annoying and stressful for her. She couldn't handle stress very well. Her energy was used up pretty fast. Also her concentration was extremely bad. He learned how to handle all these things by now.

He laid down his pen and looked up to her. They looked into each other's eyes until she decided that she wanted to sit on his lap, and so she did.  
While she was sitting in his lap, he would tell her about his work. She would listen until it was too much. She didn't like talking – most of the time. Sometimes it didn't bother her how much someone would talk to her, but most of the time she would be totally annoyed, when someone said more than ten sentences – not that he counted the sentences.

There were so many things he had to understand and watch out. And there were so many exceptions to the rules he thought he figured out. Maybe more than one life was needed to fully understand and bring happiness to her. He didn't know, if he get the chance to be with her for more than one life. Therefore all he could do was to try his best and make everything as perfect as possible for her.

Some people asked him what she did for him in return. He always could only look at them. Not because he did not have an answer, but because he did not have the right words for it. She gave him a family, a home, a place where he could be himself without being judged. She gave him a warmth that came from the inside not the outside. She gave him a smile, a future. She understood him and would stay by his side 'till the end. All those things were very simple and were something natural for most people around him, but for him they were things that he had lost inside the fire that took everything away from him.

Sometimes he wonders, what his brothers would think of his wife. Would they like her? What about his father?  
Questions that he would never know the answer to, but it was alright. They weren't here anymore, but he was and he had to go on. With her!

Working after the short cuddling was nice. He was calmer and he was able to focus better on what he was doing. Maybe because it reminded him, that he was doing all those stuff in front of him for a particular reason. The citizen of his empire wanted the same – more or less at least – as him. They all wanted a peaceful life with the people they loved. His job was to make sure that they could live this life.

It was easy to forget this simple aspect when all you see is a piece of paper with lifeless words on it about matters that did not affect yourself directly. The question, what the hell you are even doing, would cross your mind more than one time. Having someone that reminded you about the real meaning behind those words was so unbelievable important and in his case even more important. Life hated him and he hated life, but that should not affect his work! He loved her for being his reminder!

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A review would be very nice.  
(No one has to write one, but I would really love to see what other thinks about the chapter(s).)


	4. Wedding night

Sorry, I was not even able to use the right German tenses therefore do not expect me to use the right English tenses. (But let me tell you, everything happend in the past u.u)

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He could remember their wedding night like it just happened yesterday.

The whole wedding was pure stress for him and his wife, but they had to go through it. Luckily they were able to run away from the celebration. Yes, they did run away from their own wedding. Both of them did not like parties. The loud noises, the drunken people, the lights, everything was just too much.  
They had decided to take a break in one of the smaller gardens of the palace and look up to the sky and the stars. They barley talked, but it was nice. They needed the silence.

One of her subordinates brought them back to the wedding, before someone important would realize that they were gone. The whole celebration was almost at it ends at that point.  
He did not find out how her subordinate was able to find them so unbelievably fast, but in the end it did not even matter. She was strange and so were her companions.  
Finding a "run away couple" was probably like shooting fish in a barrel for them.

The wedding night was somehow awkward. Hakuryuu was far away from being that naïve or from being stupid. He knew what everyone expected them to do now. The wedding, a contract, a celebration, the wedding night. And hopefully soon the birth of a crown prince.

It was a tradition in the Kou Empire that, as soon as a prince turned 14, he would get nightly visits from the concubines. Fortunately he never had to go through that shit, but now he more or less had to do it. That was what everyone expected from him – and her. That was what they had to do, because they were the emperor and the empress.  
It was part of the wedding. Without it, it wouldn't be considered a real marriage, right?

It was so embarrassing awkward as both of them were standing in from of their bed, she on the one side and he on the other side. Silently looking down, not knowing what to say or do and avoiding eye contact.  
In the end it was her that had broken the silence.  
When she went into the bathroom he decided to sit down.  
Both of them knew what they had to do. Both of them knew what they had to do theoretically.  
He never ever had sex before and he was sure that it was the same for her. He didn't know how things worked at her place, but wasn't it the same for every princess in every country. No sex before the wedding. Well, Sindria may be an expectation. But she wasn't the princess of Sindria.

After hours – it felt like it took her hours – she finally left the bathroom. So it was his turn now. He also took his sweet time. His thoughts were somewhere else.

What the hell should he do now?  
How should he start it?  
Should he say something?

What if she was disgusted by his scars?

She had only seen the scar on his face.

What should he do, when she was disgusted by him?  
So many thoughts and no answers.  
Back then it had almost killed him, now he knew that she did not care at all.  
For her he was the most beautiful person – besides her "wife" of course – on earth.

When he got back into the bedroom she already had laid down. She didn't sleep or pretended to, she just had looked at him. He had laid down next to her. And then there was the silence again, but at that time it was an unsettling silence.

It took them hours to finally fall asleep. In those hours they did not speak or even dared to move the slightest.

In his mind he was trying to make a plan, how to have sex with her. But every time, when he thought that he was ready, something inside of him stopped him from moving. Something told him not to come near her. To leave her alone. Something inside him told him that he should just lay next to her and be happy with it. He liked that "something".  
He hoped that this "something" was also speaking to her – he never told her about that something; it would have been to embarrassing.

The next morning started as awkward as the night had ended, but at the end of that day they found out, that both of them were totally fine with not having sex with each other.  
And no one had to know what happened or better said did not happened – and will never happen – at all.

His wedding night did go down – in his history – as the most awkward night of his – still – young life!

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A review? Maybe?  
(Pretty please?!)


	5. Sunshine

First of all: s/11641435/1/In-retrospective (A story about Hakuryuu who thinks about his relationship towards Judar)

Sencond:

Since RoseGirl99 asked, whether one could give me keywords for this story: Yes, you can give me keywords, but I write about certain aspects only once. So, when you give me a keyword it is the best to use one that can be used more than once (I will only write once about the wedding night or about the wedding itself, but I can write as much chapters as wanted about e. g. holding hands.)  
If you want to specify your keyword(s) then it would be the best to write me a PN. (When someone gives me a keyword I will answer, whether I will write about this keyword or not. Please note that I am really slow.)

Third: This author loves reviews/comments and therefore would appreciate it, if someone writes one.

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It was not uncommon to change places during his work. Most of the time he could do his work in the workroom, but sometimes he also had to look things up or an urgent matter would came up and he had to leave.

He never really was in a hurry, even when it was an urgent matter. At the beginning of his time as emperor he thought he had to do everything immediately, now he knew that rushing does not automatically lead to a better or faster result. Being calmer was one of the first things he had to learn and it was one of the first things his wife taught him – from his point of view she was a little bit to calm, but that was just his opinion.  
Another thing he had to learn – learn again – was having trust in other people.  
Since the fire accident he lost all his trust in other people – only his sister was an exception – which lead to an inability in closing his eyes. It took him a long time until he was able to fall asleep even when he was really tiered, and closing his eyes when other were around was impossible – but even when he it seemed like he was alone he couldn't do it. It got slightly better over the years.

It was not helpful when the emperor did not trust his servants and subordinates. And it was not helpful when does people did not trust the emperor. Most of them acted like everything was fine, for some of them it was fine, because they did not care about who rules as long as they could live their life like always. But Hakuryuu knew that there were also those who still did not believe what happened back then and thought that his words were nothing but lies.  
In his weak moments hate and anger befall him and he wished those people would die, but he had himself under control. He now knew that there were better ways to express his feelings and thoughts, and now he also had someone who would listen and understand him – he at least hoped so.  
He did came a long way from the crybaby he was to the emperor he was now, and he still had a long way in front of him. By going ahead he would then realize a lot of things that he did not see at the first sight.

Today was one of the rare warmer days in the empire.

The palace was a place where you could get lost easily, even people who lied their whole life here sometimes got lost a little bit. As a small child he got lost relatively often, so he started to cling to his sister or the servants. When his brother were around he would follow them until they would send him away. After the great fire he also got lost often, but then no one would help him to find his way back – he wasn't important enough anymore – so he started to wander around and got to know the palace better. And he had found Judar's hiding place.

But all those things were the past now. He had to focus on the future and for that future he had to a lot of work.

When he had to change his working place, because he had to pick some scrolls from one of the library, he liked to make a few stops – at least when the sun was shining. The Kou Empire was not a warm place neither was it cold, but it tended to be more cold then warm. Therefore, he tried to get as much sunlight and warmth as he could. Also he did not have much time to spend outside since he became emperor. Unfortunately the paper work couldn't finish itself.

As child he played almost the whole day outside – well, he trained to become a useful soldier for the empire.

Now he would take the change to look at the sun and let himself be warmed up by her rays when he changes places. Most of the time he would start to remember his childhood and he would remember his brothers, his sister and his mother – but thinking about her hurt him the most, because he had loved her so much and she betrayed him.

The past was the past and he would not be able to bring those times back, but he could try to bring such wonderful memories to the people of his empire. He had a wonderful childhood until the fire and he wanted his people also to have such a good time.

No one should ever lose someone dear to him because of war, because of intrigues, because of an organization like Al Thamen.  
He would make sure that his people would have a job, a house, money and time for their family. He knew that it would be a long way until this dream would came true – Sinbad's new created world caused him and his empire a lot of problems, but problems exist to be solved and he would solve them – and for that he himself had to learn so much more.

He liked warm days full of sunshine in the empire, because it remembered him of his childhood and that he once believed in a world without war, hate, envy. He once believed in a world full of love, sunshine and happiness.


	6. Thinking

Sitting in the garden and picking flowers were something she did, not because she liked it, but because she was bored. And she did not really pick the flowers. It was more her sitting on the grass looking into the sky or around her and plucking flowers and culms out likewise.

While sitting here she thought about everything and nothing.

She thought about her past, she thought about the present, about her husband, she thought about the future.

The Kou Empire were struggling under the new laws, under the new circumstances, but it was a peaceful time. But she knew that it wouldn't last forever. Peaceful times were rare and short.

Therefore, she decided to enjoy the times in which nothing bad happens.

When she came to the Kou Empire for the very first time, she was not pleased. She didn't like the land or its people. Meeting the new emperor was strange. He was different from what she expected, even though Sinbad had already told her a few things about Hakuryuu. Not that she had expected something bad, it was just something different.

Thinking about the future made her wishing for more peaceful times. She hoped for her and Hakuryuu to be able to become at least friends.

Sleeping next to him was somewhat awkward. Starting to talk to him wasn't so easy either. Most of the time she just started, but it always felt wrong. Especially because she talked about very personal thing, but the wanted to know him better and she wanted to change something.  
What exactly she wanted to change was up in the air, she just felt that something had to change. Hakuryuu was unhappy, but she wanted him to be happy. He deserved happiness. She also wanted to bring happiness to her husband's cousin Kougyoku.  
She liked the other girl from the first sight. Although she did not agree with the point of view of that girl, when it came to the Kou Empire and their royalty. But that was a different matter.

When she was sitting in the garden on her own and thinking about everything and nothing alike, she thought that this world was a strange one, that being alive was strange and she wondered what was the reason for all of them to exist.

And in the end she always would get up and walk into the kitchen to bake something sweet for her new family members. She loved baking and she loved her new family – even when everything still felt strange and unreal and forced, but what wasn't could be someday.

She hope that one day her new family was a happy family like her old family, like her other family, like the family of her beloved "wife".

All she wished for was to be part of a big, happy family. But for that she herself had to change, too. Hakuryuu already did his best for both of them, even though he did not love her and was faced into this marriage. She had to do her best for both of them, too!

All the times sitting in the garden and plucking flowers and culm out of the ground made her decide to not give up, to give her best and gave this world and its inhabitants another chance.


	7. Cuddling

**_Reviews would be very much appreciated._**

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Normally he and his wife would sleep in different beds, in different rooms. Their marriage was not one out of love, it was a political one. After the wedding night they decided that it was the best for each of them to have their own room. His wife loved her freedom and own space and he was no different in this aspect. Later they spent a few nights together and felt asleep next to each other without knowing just to wake up while hugging the other one. They get used it each other. They started to grow feelings for the other one that were more than just "I am alright with this person" and slowly passing the "I like the other one". Back then he thought it would be great if they could be at least friends one day.

The reason why they decided to share a bed was always different. Sometimes they were just too lazy to leave for their own bed and sometimes they simply didn't want to be alone at night.

When they shared the bed he woke up in her arms most of the time.

His head was resting on her chest. At first he felt ashamed of himself. He should not do something like that. Therefore, he always pulled away from her and felt bad about himself. She was sleeping and not aware of his "crime". He should tell her and apologize, but he did not. One day when he woke up and tried to pull away she stopped him. She asked him, if he felt uncomfortable. She asked him, if he wanted to stay like this. She told him that it was fine with her.

And so he did not move away. He felt comfortable with her. She was warm. He could hear her heartbeat. She tenderly stroke through his hair. She smelt so good, she always did! Sometimes she also would hum a melody. He loved it.

Moments like this, in which he laid in her arms with his head on her chest, made him feel comfortable. It made him remember a time when everything was still alright for him. His father and brothers were still alive. His mother was loving him – or at least he that was what he thought back then – and everything was just alright. In the future, he would help his brothers to create a world without war – a dream he now disagreed with. He wanted a world without war, too, but the way his father and brothers tried to achieve this kind of world was what he disagreed with now.

When his fathers was not in the palace, he sometimes would sneak into his mothers and fathers bedroom and laid down next to his mother. He then would snuggle against her and she would softly stoke his hair and ask what was wrong.

In the past he sometimes had dreams about his brothers and his father dying on the battlefield or being murdered by an assassin. He knew that those dream were nothing but silly dreams – he even knew they were dreams when he had them – and still they sacred him – if we had known that one of those dream would came true …

His mother would tell him then that those dream were just that and that nothing bad would happen to his family. Seldom, his older sister Hakuei would join them in bed.

He felt save, loved and happy back then.

From time to time he would also sneak into his big brother's bedroom. Hakuyuu was not so found of it, since Hakuryuu was old enough to sleep alone, but he never sent him away or said much about it – Hakuryuu was sure that Hakuyuu loved it to a certain degree. Hakuren on the other hand was very happy to get a visit from his younger brother. One night Hakuryuu and his siblings slept all together in Hakuyuu's bed – the reason why all of them even fit in was probably because Hakuei and he were still so small.

The memories of his family made him feel good and at the same time made him sad. It was all over. His father was dead. His brothers were dead. His mother was dead – and he had to realize that she always lied to him and never was the person he had thought she was. So not her death hurt him but the fact that everything was a lie. A huge part of his few years of peace were a lie!

Still, moment like this, in which he laid in his wife's arms with his head on her chest, able to hear her heartbeat, made him feel happy. A part of him were still found of these memories of the past – even when a part of him tells him that they were lies.

Such moments made him remember the feeling of love, the warmth of a family and the joy they could bring. The delight when the people one loved came back home. The joy of being able to talk to them and touch them – a joy that one would only realize after this possibility was gone.

His wife allowed him to feel all this wonderful feelings again and let him sink into a mix of dreams and memories. A place where everything was right – even when he now knew that his memories were partly a lie he was told.

At some point during their marriage he started to look forward to sleeping next to her, to spend the night with her and in the end wake up snuggled against her. She made him dream about a bright future with her at his side.

Moments like this made him came to peace for a little while and relax.


	8. Tea time

I wanted to thank everyone who wrote a review. I cannot express how happy it makes me to read that you enjoyed my chapters. It really means a lot to me!

Also thanks to everyone who favorited my story or is following it. And a thank you to everyone who is reading my one shot collection.

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Hakuryuu had always liked drinking tea. He already liked tea as a child, while other children preferred sweet drinks. Now he loved drinking tea. Not simply every tea. He loved drinking the tea his wife made herself. She created a peach tea for Judar who would never admit but could not get enough of it.  
His wife had teas in different flavors and for different situations. A tea in the morning to wake up, a tea during the day to calm down and regain some energy and a tea in the evening to relax and have a good night sleep later on. Hakuryuu often had drunken one of her teas to calm down, not only during the day but also in the morning or evening. So many things had still gone wrong after the civil war and there were probably a lot of things ahead of him that were about to go wrong. The difference now was just the simple fact that he was not alone anymore and that he had his wife's tea to calm himself down.  
The best moments to drink a cup of the mint-honey tea – his favorite – were ones in which the world outside was cold, maybe raining or snowing, and he was sitting inside where it was warm. It gave him a strange feeling of comfort, safety, normality and peace. For a few moments he would forget all the cruel things this world was capable of.

The first time Hakuryuu tried the mint and honey tea of his wife he was very skeptical of it. The thought of mint combined with honey was so strange and somewhat absurd. But after he took the first sip he was amazed by it.  
Whenever he was working and needed a break he would take a cup of her tea, made himself comfortable on his seat and slowly drink the tea, while looking out of the window. He loved such moments. Strangely in such moments his wife would often enter the room and asked for a few minutes in which she then would tell him whatever bothers her or had made her happy. If he compared her first visits with her later ones he realized that at the beginning she complain a lot about the empire and how it had worked and how the people had been treated by the former government and how Hakuryuu had to change that – they often had arguments about that topic. Later she was so happy that thing started to change, only to start to worry about Sinbad and his doings which then destroyed all the effort they all had put into the changes. He wanted too much too fast, was what she often had said. Hakuryuu had agreed. Since the murder of his family he started to think differently than the rest of his family and started to develop other goals and a different mindset. Still, even for him it was too much. Something that was taught you since birth could not be overthrown in just a few year in addition to a completely new agenda. Unfortunately, Hakuryuu barely could do anything against it. He could not fight Sinbad, not with weapons – and Hakuryuu did not even want that – nor with other means. Still, the young emperor had been surprised that his wife was the one who first expressed this thought about Sinbad. Wasn't she one of Sinbad's allies? Shouldn't she think like him? One the other hand, the King of Kina was not a fan of King Sinbad as well and still was part of the alliance.

It took Hakuryuu awhile to get his wife better, which was not surprising since the marriage was a political one and they had never met before and therefore never had the chance to get to know each other. So, he used the time in which he enjoyed a cup of tea to think about her. At first he thought this was something he only did because he did not knew her well, but even after getting to know her better and being married to her for longer, he still thought the most about her during tea time.  
Once he thought that if she were a beverage she would be tea. Tea was very simple, just hot water and herbs. She was simple. Too simple for a lot of people. He had been one of those people. It was so simple to make her happy or sad. She liked it warm and fluffy, disliked cooked vegetables and spicy food, liked warm colors and sweets, disliked cold weather, liked gifts, disliked surprises, liked hearing compliments about people she loved, disliked being overlooked, belittled or not be taken serious, liked beautiful people and things, disliked injustice, inequality and prejudices. She was so normal and simple, just like the hot water of the tea.  
And then there were the herbs. The vegetables she would never eat without being cooked first and the food that had to be spicy. The things she wanted to be surprised with. Her definition of beauty. How some things had to be cold – be it food or the weather at a certain time – or how she sometimes expresses that people would only learn what injustice meant and that it was wrong by facing the injustice they put others through themselves. How she thought and saw things one way but did the opposite of it because she knew that following those thoughts and emotions would lead to nowhere and would be wrong.

At the end he even started to compare others to beverage, too. Thinking about his wife while drinking tea made him think about the strangest things. It did not bother him anymore.

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This time a short one.

1\. Since I am not sure whether I already mentioned this, I will do it now (again):  
It is alright if you send me suggestions for another chapter. Please be advised that there are only a few thing I will only write about once, like the marriage night. If you want to read something about e. g. "holding hands" I will write more than one chapter about it, since it is more general and can be interpreted and used for more than one occasion. (I hope it is more or less understandable what I am trying to say. If not, just ask.)

2\. Since I have only wrote one chapter from Hakuryuu's wife's point of view, **_I would like to ask, whether you want to read more chapters from her point of view or should I stick with Hakuryuu?_**

3\. Thank you so far for reading my one shot collection! I hope you all could enjoy the chapters so far and will also like the future chapters.

4\. If you like the one shot collection, you can also check out my other stories ^.^

5\. **Reviews/Comments would be very much appreciated.**


	9. Flower crowns

1\. And another chapter filled with a lot of mistakes. This time the chapter is from Hakuryuu's wife's point of view. I hope you like it. If so, please tell me and I will make more chapters from her point of view. If you do not want any more chapters from her point of view tell me as well. (Or if there is a specific scene you would like to read about.)

2\. Reviews/Comments would be very much appreciated. (To be honest, reviews are really important to me and it makes me sad and it is frustrating to see how many people clicked on the story and how few took a few seconds out of their lives to leave a small message. It somehow feels like my work is not worth it and that makes me sad and it hurts. I know that I make a lot of mistakes and all, but I am really doing my best. And I love everyone who has already left a few words. It makes me so happy that I cannot even describe it with words - it really means a lot to me to read your kind words!)

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Flower crowns.  
She loved them. They reminded her of her family. A family she had to leave behind. She hadn't been able to understand why she had to marry Hakuryuu – he was a nice guy, but in the end it was not a marriage out of love. Her homeland did not even benefit from it. She knew her adoptive father had been suspicious of Sinbad – and he would be right about his feelings -, so why not marring him instead of Hakuryuu? However, she wasn't angry or disappointed with her family. As princesses she was privileged and therefore had to use those privileges to serve her people. The royal family were the servants of the people, not the other way around!  
Further, she was not alone in this foreigner country. Her "wife" and the husband of her "wife" accompanied and stayed with her to make sure she would not feel lonely or was treated badly – though she still felt lonely sometimes. A political marriage was a horrible thing, even when it was good for the country and its people. There were still two people that had to live a life with a stranger and never be able to experience the bright side of love.

She had made so many flower crowns for her family in the past and she would make even more for them in the future. Maybe she also would make some for Hakuryuu and Kougyoku one time. Maybe those two would be a part of her family as well one day.  
Whenever she sit in the palace garden and created one flower crown after the other she wondered what kind of flowers would fit Kougyoku and Hakuryuu. What kind of flower did they like? Would they even like such a gift? Had she known that Kougyoku herself liked making flower crowns, she had asked the other girl right away to join her. It was more fun to do something one liked together with someone else who enjoyed the same thing. And it was a good way to get to know each other better.  
Unfortunately, she didn't knew sooner.  
Fortunately, she and Kougyoku still got closer over the time.  
Hakuryuu also had joined them one day. He had made flower crowns for his big brothers in the past. Hakuei had helped him back then, now he was able to do it himself, but there hadn't been one for whom he could make one for a long time.

She loved blue flowers. They reminded her of her family. A family she loved so much but had to leave behind.  
At night she cried. When she made flower crowns she cried. She cried when she was alone, when no one was listening, when no one could hear her. She cried a lot at the beginning. She had missed her homeland and family so much. A lot of blue flowers grow in her homeland. Some fields looked like the ocean because of all the blue flowers. She also loved the ocean.

Her wish back then, when she made the first flower crowns in the Kou Empire, was to put flower crowns on the heads of her family and herself again. To smile with them again. To make flower crowns with them again. She wanted to return home. And she wished that Hakuryuu and Kougyoku would be her family as well one day. Dreaming of a bright, happy and beautiful future with everyone kept her away from getting depressed. In the end she was just a human and wanted to experience real love, just once. Until then there hadn't been someone she loved in such a way and then she was married of. She wanted a relationship like her "wife" had with "her" husband. At the beginning she lost hope in such a future. In the end she got what she wanted!

Whenever she made flower crowns, she thought of her family. A family she loved more than life itself. Thinking about them made her happy, dreaming about a future with them made her smile and forget her loneliness. At one point in her life flower crowns were not just a reminder, a symbol of her adoptive family anymore, but also of her new family.

Moments like this, moments in which she was sitting in the palace garden of the Kou Empire, made her remember that a family was nothing to be taken for granted. Moments like this made her remember the past and inveigled her to compare the past with the present and envision, hope for a bright future.


	10. Cooking

Thank you, **jankitty13** , for your review.

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 _Hakuryuu_ liked to cook. He had never told anyone since cooking wasn't something a prince should do, less should the emperor. So, he cooked in secret. Sadly, he hadn't had anyone to share with. A few times he made breakfast for his sister Kougyoku who was so sad and unhappy shortly after the end of the civil war which was understandable. He had felt bad because he thought it was his fault that she felt like that. It partly was his fault. Still, she seemed to not blame him at all. He couldn't handle such kindness. For so many years he had been treated badly. Only his big sister Hakuei had seemed to be nice to him, to care about him and now Kougyoku was so kind to him. They got real close with each other and the bond they created was mutual. She was probably the first he shared mutual feelings. Normally, he was the one that was rejected by other, be it his family or friends. Therefore, he thought he didn't deserve such kindness and understanding. Such a thought had been imprinted on him by his own family and friends. It had been his wife who had helped him to more or less get rid of that thought and, now and then, reminded him that he deserved kindness, love and understanding. He was a great person according to her and therefore should be treated that way.

Now after being married for a "long" time, they often cooked together and they did not do it in secret. She had once caught him in action, since then she would join him from time to time on his nightly cooking adventures.  
The first time they cooked together was also the first time she was in the kitchen of the palace. She had looked a little bit lost. At first he had thought that she might had never been in a kitchen before and therefore never had cooked. Oh, how wrong he had been. Her cooking skills were far above his own, however she lacked the concentration and motivation to cook a big meal. She preferred to eat the meals instead of making them. But she loved backing very much and once she started it was hard to stop her. He loved her backing.  
When they cooked their first dish together, she took care of the side dishes like the salad. He was responsible for the main dish. From time to time he asked her if everything was alright or if she needed something. It had been a little bit awkward because he didn't knew what to talk about with her. And he was unsure whether she even wanted to talk with him. And what if she was too shy or maybe scared to ask him things, like ask for the ingredients she needed or for the kitchen utensils. On the other hand, she had been able to finish the side dishes, so she apparently hadn't needed anything or found it herself.

The silence was only broken through his questions and later also through her asking him what he was doing there – it sounded like she never had made a meal on her own before, which strengthened his assumption that she had never cooked before. Later he found out that she only asked because she used a different method then him.  
Thanks to her questions they finally started a conversation. In the conversation itself it had been Hakuryuu who did most of the talking and in the few and short breaks he took because he had to focus on the food, he feared that he might bore her. A few times he looked away from whatever he had to do and watched her. She either was looking around – he wasn't sure how to interpret her look – or returned to her salad which took almost as long as the main dish.

Over the course of time they spent together in the kitchen the silence that reappeared again and again got more and more comfortable. Even when Hakuryuu still often feared she would be bored by him or felt uncomfortable with him around. Yes, he had a very bad opinion of himself. His wife changed that during their years together.

Hakuryuu often got lost in his cooking and ended up with too much dishes, but they were all very creative, be it in the way he prepared them to serve or what he cooked. The same happened when he cooked with his wife for the first time. When he had entered the kitchen his goal had been to make a simple meal with meat and vegetables. Nothing big or special. When he and his wife left the kitchen they had enough food for the whole palace. Of course, they shared.  
For the decoration of the meal he had asked his wife for help who had agreed with a smile. The decorations were made out of the vegetables which he wanted to cut in a certain way so they would look e. g. like leaves. Doing so wasn't easy and one needed good fine motor skills and a steady hand. Both fulfilled those criteria, but at some point his wife needed some help.  
It was embarrassing or uncomfortable – he wasn't sure what he felt exactly or how to descript his feelings at that time – to be so close to her and taking her hands so he could show her what she had to do and how. First he had tried to only show it, but even when she tried to follow what he showed her she failed. She was too unsure and appeared to be a little bit afraid as well. Maybe she feared to cut herself. So, he took her hands in his and showed her the right movements that way. Something like this meant to be very close to the other one and Hakuryuu wasn't sure whether she was alright with that or not. Well, she didn't complain, still she might only be silent because she was too shy or afraid or nice to tell him to get away from her. Or maybe he just put too much thoughts into her actions or the lack of such.  
However, thinking or believing that he was a nice companion was something he hadn't even dreamed of. It was something unreal. Something that one could never put in relation to him.

Her fingers had been cold – he pinned it on the fact that she washed the vegetables before and the water she used had been cold, later he learned that her fingers were always cold and she was always freezing.  
Her skin had been so soft. She always had soft skin and that was one of the reasons why he liked to touch her so much later on.  
Furthermore, she smelled great. A pleasant scent of mandarins. He had to admit that being so close to her was great, but his negative thoughts were stronger. Since the death of his brothers Hakuryuu never had much contact, especially body contact, with others. Never had he thought that he missed and needed body contact so much. He had felt bad for feeling like this, for hoping and wanting more.  
Therefore, he had felt some kind of relief when he let go of her, while wanting to touch her again.

When they had left the kitchen he still felt bad about his desire, his wish, while his wife was smiling and said that she hoped that they could cook together again.

Whenever he and his wife cooked together now Hakuryuu would remember their first time doing so. Now he could smile and laugh about it. Remembering the moments they had awkward conversations and awkward silence made him realize how far they have come since then.


	11. The moon

This is the last one shot of this collection that I will upload. (I had fun writing and sharing the one shots, but it is no fun to be ignored all the time. So I will stop uploading - it is better for me that way. Sorry.)

Thanks to everyone who were nice enough to leave a review. Every single one - be it a long or a short one - made me so happy!

(And for those who also read my other stories. There will be either a new chapter by "Happiness" or "A reality based on fantasy" next, but I will focus on another project which I neglected for about a year.)

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Working until the moon and the stars were up was nothing new or unusually for Hakuryuu. It had become better over time. After the world was freed from destiny he had gotten back his title as emperor and the reconstruction of the Kou Empire was still going on. Since they had more freedom now things had become easier, but working until midnight or even past it was not unusual.

On his way back to his bedroom he took a short moment to look up at the clear night sky. It made him remember a time when he was also on his way back from work to his room and made a short stop to look at the sky. Back then he had seen his wife in her room looking up at the sky as well and decided to pay her a visit. He brought tea and some sweets with him. It had been the first time for him to enter her bedroom and he felt a little bit strange. It had felt wrong. But she hadn't mind and even told him to sit down next to her so they could watch the stars together. After a short silence she had started to talk about stellar constellations, astronomy in general and the universe. He had just listened to her and had been amazed about how much she knew. He knew from the first time they had met that she was a very well-versed person. She had taught him so much and he was sure there were a lot of people that could learn so much from her. Unfortunately, she often kept things to herself because she didn't like talking and sometimes was just too shy or thought that people might be annoyed by her. Contradictory to that she could be very loud and furious when someone stuck in her craw. It was the best to not be on her bad side!

It turned out that she and the husband of her "wife" had often looked at the night sky and he then would tell her all kind of stories connected to the stars and the moon.

She told him some of those stories. He just listened. She had a calming voice. He would never admit it, but back then he had almost fallen asleep. Not because he was bored or anything, but because her voice was so calming and her furniture was so comfortable and yes he had been tired as well. Still, he kept himself awake to hear her stories. He always would listen to her stories no matter what. They were important to her and for whatever reason they became important to him too.

"Say, Hakuryuu, do you read books?"  
He had been puzzled by her question at first.  
Of course he read books! How else should he do his work? He had to read so many things and books were one of them.  
"Of course I do."  
"Do you also read novels?"  
"No."  
When he had been a little child his mother had read them to him. But after the fire incident the only books and stories he read and heard were about the history of the Empire, about wars, economics and all those things.  
"I love reading them. And I love love stories. But you know what?"  
"What?"  
"I never really understand and liked how the female character most of the time falls in love with the male character that saved her and then was referring to him as the sun. I mean, I have nothing against one falling in love with their savoir, it is just that it often is so predictable and the involvement of other character are ignored. I hate it when the achievements and the work of others are ignored and just one person gets credit, especially when that character gets credit for things they haven't done."  
Hakuryuu hadn't been sure what to respond to this, but he had to say something.  
"That's understandable, I guess. I wouldn't like that, you know being ignored or that someone gets credit for things I achieved. No one would like that, I guess."  
She just smiled at him.

"I think it is stupid to refer to someone as the sun. Have you ever tried to look at the sun? One cannot. It hurts! Why would one want someone they cannot even look at? How can you love someone you cannot look at? Why would one want a relationship in which one put the other one above oneself? Shouldn't a relationship be about equality?"  
He agreed with her.  
"I prefer the moon. I want someone to be my moon, not my sun."  
He had asked her why.  
"Simple, the moon stays with you. You can look at the moon without being hurt. The moon is there when everything is dark. He will guide you through the darkness with a gentle light. He let you decided how deep you want to go into the darkness or the light. He helps you to be not afraid of the darkness. The sun is a lie. She is only by your side when everything is bright, but as soon as the darkness comes she leaves you alone, let others do the work to get you out of there and then acts as if everything is fine. The sun only shows you the cruel world unmindful of your feelings. The moon on the other hand let you decided how much you can bear. The sun is egoistic! She is not a companion for all the good and bad times because she is only there during the good times. She will leave one as soon as trouble is near. And you know what? The moon is not alone. The moon is accompanied by the stars. Even when the moon cannot reach you, the stars are there to help and guide you. You know, you can find your way through the world with the stars as compass. But the sun does not accept someone next to her. She wants you to depend only on her! She wants all the credit for herself! She does not want you to have others at your side! The sun is cruel, false and egoistic! I think the moon is better! But unfortunately, most people think the sun is better."  
"Maybe because when the sun is up all the bad things do not exist? People are afraid of the dark, so when the sun is shining there is no darkness."  
His wife was silent for a moment and thought about his words.  
"That's not true. Bad things happen at night and even during daytime. Bad things always happen! And there is darkness during the day! Think about all the side allies. The sun does not always reach them as well, so they are dark. The sun and the light she brings are just a lie. People are just blinded by her."  
Hakuryuu had never really thought much about such things. Why should he? He never had a reason to do so and there never had been a moment that had imprinted such a thought into his mind. Why should it even be important whether someone refers to someone else as sun or moon?  
It had took him a while until he really understood the meaning of her words.  
"I want someone to be my moon, not my sun. I do not need the sun."  
Hakuryuu needed the sun. He had been in the cold and dark for so long that he wanted to get out of there. But he also never had a moon or stars to guide him. It didn't matter who or what helped him out of his loneliness, the darkness and the pain as long as he finally could find peace.

Hakuryuu hadn't been able to sleep much that night. Her words wouldn't get out of his mind and they actually never left him. Even today he thought about them from time to time.  
So whenever he took a moment to look up at the night sky, look up at the moon and the stars he thought about that night with his wife. That night had been the start of him falling in love with the moon, the stars and the night.


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